The Godfather of Football

When Victor Kassai blew the whistle to end the game, the entire Camp Nou stadium became completely silent.

Nearly 100,000 Barcelona fans sat in the stands. At their feet and beside them, there were props that were originally prepared to celebrate the team's reversal of Tottenham Hotspur and advancement to the Champions League semi-finals. But obviously, these things are useless now, so many people threw these props off the stands as a vent.

Just like they used pig heads to throw Figo back then, now they use these props to throw Tottenham Hotspur and the damn Chinese, but they also want to kill this group of unpromising players.

1:2, the scoreboard shows the final result of this game, and also shows the total score of the two rounds, 1:4.

This represents a cruel fact, that is, Barcelona finally stopped in the quarterfinals and was eliminated from the Champions League by Tottenham Hotspur. This season, which was highly expected by fans, finally failed.

Yes, for Barcelona, ​​not winning the Champions League, or failing to show enough competitiveness in the Champions League, means failure, especially after spending a lot of money to introduce players such as Mascherano, Van Persie, Alexis Sanchez, etc., the team's performance still has not improved much, which is definitely a failure.

Tottenham Hotspur players celebrated their advancement to the semi-finals. Among this group of Tottenham Hotspur players wearing white jerseys, there are Fabregas, Messi, David Silva, Ribery, and Thiago Silva. These are all players who have been rumored to be with Barcelona, ​​but they are just rumors.

Everyone knows that it is impossible to poach players from Tottenham Hotspur, especially those who have proven their strength on all fronts, without giving a high enough price. At the moment when the transfer market bubble has been blowing bigger and bigger, even Barcelona does not have enough funds to operate such an amazing sky-high transfer.

Mascherano, Van Persie, Deco, Abidal and other former Ye Qiu's old servants, after the game, walked towards Ye Qiu one by one, congratulating him on getting the qualification to advance. Although they are now wearing Barcelona jerseys, after the game, they can also represent themselves and congratulate their former mentors.

Losing is a very sad thing, but some things are more important than the victory or defeat of the game.

Just like Xavi and Iniesta, even if they lost, they still congratulated Fabregas and Messi.

Both goals came from Messi. The second goal occurred in the 78th minute. At that time, Barcelona's physical energy had been almost consumed. In the case of excessive physical energy consumption, their defense inevitably made mistakes. When organizing the defense, they actually missed the Argentine, which gave Messi another opportunity to be unguarded.

In terms of the ability to seize opportunities, Messi will not lose to anyone, so facing this opportunity of no one defending in the penalty area, he will not let it pass by his feet, even if this time he is facing his old club Barcelona.

"Congratulations!" Guardiola, as the host, came up despite being reluctant to lose the game.

"Thank you!" Ye Qiu shook hands with him.

In fact, Guardiola's ability to design tactical frameworks is still very good, especially his familiarity with Barcelona's tactical system. He is indeed very good in the overall situation, but he also has his own shortcomings in some specific details, such as on-the-spot command, and he is a bit too presumptuous in selecting players.

In the past, Guardiola introduced Ibrahimovic, gave up Eto'o, and even sacrificed a great deal of the club's interests. In the end, Ibrahimovic was proved to be a failure.

Now, although Van Persie's introduction has proved to be successful, Barcelona's core problem is not just in the frontcourt, because in Ye Qiu's view, Barcelona's entire tactical system is actually derived from the 433 tactical system of Ajax in the Netherlands. The difference is that they emphasize ball control.

It can be said that the biggest ideological conflict between Cruyff and Dutch football lies in the amount of ball control. The former is obsessed with ball control, while the latter is more inclined to winger tactics. Of course, there are more or less some paranoia between the two, but they both pay great attention to the wing.

When Ye Qiu took over the Ajax first team, he once said that the glory of Ajax in the 1990s during the Van Gaal period, and even the glory of Ajax and even the history of Dutch football, are inseparable from the wing, whether it is a wing forward or a full-back.

If we expand it a little bit, the success of any powerful team in the world is inseparable from the wing, Cafu and Carlos of the Brazilian national team, Mauro Tassotti and Maldini of the AC Milan dynasty, all of them are like this.

So when Ye Qiu took over Ajax, the first thing he did was to improve the wing, introduce winger Robben, and at the same time introduce full-backs Maicon and Abidal. After arriving at Chelsea, Ye Qiu did the same thing, transforming the wing.

In the 433 tactic, the wing is a crucial link, especially the full-back, because the 433 tactic has too harsh requirements on the wing, and the 433 tactic has too many requirements on the wing attack, which prompts the 433 tactic to adopt full-backs with strong assist ability, fast speed, and the ability to echo the front wingers.

Don't blindly think that Ye Qiu trusts Alves and Marcelo, and thinks that he favors Brazilian players or likes assist-type full-backs. That is tactical. Without these two full-backs, Tottenham Hotspur's offense will drop more than one level.

Of course, Ye Qiu does not mean that the wing is more important than the center, because he has always emphasized the combination of the wing and the center.

Barcelona's previous problem was getting the ball in the frontcourt. With Eto'o, it was originally possible to solve this problem by introducing a ball-carrier, such as David Silva, who is called Ronaldinho's natural successor, but Guardiola does not like Eto'o, so he introduced Van Persie and strengthened the two wingers at the same time, which is also possible.

But the problem of full-backs has never been solved. In theory, Puyol and Abidal are both good at both offense and defense, but in reality, they are both full-backs who are better at defense than offense. This makes their offensive insertions more of a support point, as a back-row support point, and they can't directly insert to the front like Marcelo or Alves, or even cut inside to rush into the penalty area.

In other words, as full-backs, Puyol and Abidal can do a good job of defense, but their contribution on the offensive end is only to limit and receive the ball. It is difficult for them to appear in threatening offensive routines.

The most obvious feature is that when the team scored the first goal, Ribery took the ball and cut inside, and Marcelo dared to insert directly from behind and take the ball to attack Barcelona's defense. This convenience of inserting from behind can ensure that Marcelo directly attacks the opponent's weakest link, resulting in a complete disruption of the opponent's defense.

But this kind of play is impossible for Puyol and Abidal.

Thinking of this, Ye Qiu couldn't help but smile, because he found a very interesting point, that is, Barcelona and Arsenal, both of which have a clear preference for ball possession tactics, but have two completely opposite shortcomings.

Barcelona's weakness is on the wing, but Arsenal is just the opposite. Arsenal's wing not only has good players such as Clichy, Sagna, Nasri, Walcott, but also has excellent wing attack capabilities. Walcott has performed very well this season, but the problem is that Arsenal lacks a center, especially a top center forward.

After Adebayor left the team, Arsenal lost its frontcourt fulcrum this season, but there was no proper signing, so that the Gunners' performance this season has always been difficult to challenge the top three Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Manchester United in the league.

Of course, relying on the advantages accumulated over the past years and relying on the team's mature system, Arsenal can still steadily get the fourth place in the league and advance to the Champions League next season.

In the two rounds of games against Barcelona, ​​Ye Qiu adopted similar defensive counterattack tactics, not only because the team was in poor condition, but also because he wanted to get a confirmation, that is, whether the team's defensive system is strong enough to contain Barcelona and Arsenal, two teams with obvious flaws and weaknesses.

The final result was quite satisfactory!

Tottenham Hotspur defeated Barcelona 2:1 away and eliminated the La Liga giants with a total score of 4:1. This became the focus of major media around the world the next day, and the other games in the Champions League quarter-finals were decided one after another.

The first was the game between Manchester United and Bayern Munich, who were in the same upper half as Tottenham Hotspur.

Ferguson's team has been performing better and better recently, especially after the team's entire offensive and defensive system has been running in more and more. After losing 1:2 to Bayern Munich away, Ferguson's team returned to Old Trafford. Because of the intentional retention in the league last weekend, Manchester United's physical fitness and state are more ideal. They defeated the visiting Bayern Munich 3:1 at home and finally eliminated the Bundesliga giants from the Champions League with a total score of 4:3.

Van Gaal's team is known for its offensive ability, which is also a typical feature of Van Gaal. So from the perspective of selecting opponents, Ye Qiu prefers to meet Van Gaal, but it turns out that his recent luck is very bad, and he actually met Manchester United in the end.

Ferguson knows Tottenham Hotspur inside and out, and his running-in with this team is very mature. In the Champions League knockout rounds, Manchester United eliminated giants such as AC Milan and Bayern Munich one after another, and the fighting power of Manchester United can be seen.

Or it should be said that Tottenham Hotspur can maintain such a huge lead in the league. One of the most important reasons why Manchester United decided to give up the league early is that Manchester United lost too many points in the first half of the season, so many that they are now unable to catch up, so Ferguson made such a strategic choice.

But because Ferguson decided to give up the league, he will do his best in the Champions League. In Ferguson's words, this year may be the season when he has the best hope of winning the Champions League, not only because the team's frontcourt has a good run-in, but also because the two central defenders on the back line are still in their peak state.

At present, Manchester United is also trying to cultivate the successors of Vidic and Ferdinand, such as Evans, but the progress is not very good. It is foreseeable that as the two central defenders get older, their competitive state will definitely decline. At that time, Manchester United's central defenders will definitely encounter twists and turns again. It will be difficult to win the Champions League again.

Therefore, it is indeed a very wise choice to take advantage of the maturity and stability of the two central defenders to strive for a Champions League.

But for Tottenham Hotspur, it is really unfavorable to face Manchester United, especially the home-and-away schedule.

On the contrary, Mourinho is lucky now. Although Inter Milan's performance this season is not very ideal, especially in the goalkeeper position, there is no strong supplement after selling Cesar. In addition, this season missed Lucio and Sneijder. Mourinho's desired Carvalho and Lampard did not come, which directly led to Inter Milan's poor combat effectiveness.

But after eliminating Chelsea in the round of 16, Inter Milan easily defeated CSKA Moscow in the quarter-finals, and faced French Ligue 1 giants Lyon in the semi-finals. It can be said that Inter Milan successfully advanced to the finals, and there was almost no suspense. Everyone felt that as long as Tottenham Hotspur defeated Manchester United again, the three consecutive Champions League titles would not be a dream, because with Tottenham Hotspur's strength, it was almost no suspense to enter the finals and defeat Inter Milan.

Returning from Barcelona to London, the whole city began to enter the football atmosphere of the North London Derby.

Since Ye Qiu acquired Tottenham Hotspur, this North London team has shown a completely transformed performance. In the past few years, Tottenham Hotspur has not only achieved excellent results, but the team's tactical play and style are also very pleasing. Together with Arsenal, they are known as the two most gorgeous teams in the Premier League.

Because of this, every North London Derby has attracted the attention of countless fans.

At the beginning of the season, in the eleventh round of the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur challenged Arsenal away. At that time, Tottenham Hotspur, who was in excellent form, defeated Arsenal 3:0 away, and the Gunners' fans applauded the mortal enemy team at the Emirates Stadium, which was regarded as a huge shame by countless Gunners.

But what made Arsenal and Wenger even more embarrassed was that from the beginning to the end of this season, Arsenal did not show even a little sign of having the strength to win the championship. Their goal from beginning to end was just to compete for the Champions League qualification, which was completely opposite to the ambitious Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Manchester United.

This made the Gunners fans dissatisfied, and also put Arsenal management and Wenger under great pressure.

The current Premier League is not the oligarchic era of Arsenal and Manchester United, or even the era of Chelsea joining later. Today's Premier League is an era of heroes competing for supremacy.

Didn't you see that Liverpool's performance this season was not good, the team lacked fighting power, and the results immediately plummeted, falling directly to the sixth place in the league. It is impossible to have the hope of returning to the Champions League qualification zone, and there will be little suspense that Benitez will be dismissed after the season.

Arsenal's situation is not much better than Liverpool. There are strong enemies such as Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Manchester United blocking them like mountains in front, and there are strong pursuers such as Manchester City, West Ham United and Aston Villa chasing them like hungry wolves behind. Arsenal's situation can be said to be very dangerous.

If it were in other teams, Wenger would definitely find ways to ask the board of directors to make additional investments, at least to introduce a strong center forward to further strengthen the team's offensive power, but unfortunately, at present, Arsenal does not have the possibility of big signings, especially center forwards.

The most popular center forwards in today's football world are Falcao of Tottenham Hotspur, Van Persie of Barcelona, ​​Ibrahimovic of Inter Milan, Drogba of Chelsea, or Torres of Liverpool, but it is very difficult to introduce these center forwards or scorers, and the transfer fees are beyond Arsenal's reach.

In addition to these top forwards, Edin Dzeko, the Bosnian center forward who has risen strongly in the past two seasons of Wolfsburg, is also quite outstanding, but the problem is that this center forward is currently being watched by many top teams. If you want to introduce this Bosnian center forward from Wolfsburg, it is impossible to make a deal without a transfer fee of more than 20 million euros.

And 20 million, this is almost impossible for Arsenal to come up with.

Many people like to scold Wenger, and many Gunners fans even blame Wenger for the team's decline. There are even board members who stand up and say that the Gunners are not without money, because in the past five years, the team has made a net profit of nearly 150 million euros from the transfer market.

Whenever Wenger saw such remarks, he had an urge to curse, because he really wanted to ask this stupid guy who couldn't even read the financial statements whether he knew how much debt the team paid for the real estate project in Highbury Square every year?

Thirty million euros for five years, which was exactly the money earned in the transfer market, was all invested in the real estate project. What's more sad is that this real estate project costing hundreds of millions of pounds has so far seemed to be a bottomless pit, and all of this came from a decision made by some managers!

If there is no real estate project, Arsenal does not need to earn the 150 million euro transfer fee difference, nor does it need to invest in the transfer market every year. You know, moving from Highbury Stadium to the Emirates Stadium increased the match day income by 65 million euros in the first year, and then increased year by year.

If there is no damn real estate project, Arsenal can now invest heavily without worrying about financial problems.

But everything in this world does not believe in ifs and assumptions, so Wenger can only use the only resources in his hands and his existing abilities to try to help the team out of adversity and maintain the status of the Premier League giants. This is the only thing he can do.

And sometimes, especially when he sees others making lavish signings, he even has a hope, hoping that a rich boss can fall from the sky and give him countless money so that he can squander it unscrupulously!

I believe this is not only Wenger's dream, but also the dream of countless head coaches!